World Meeting of Families

THE BRIEF

With this Vatican-sponsored event being held in the United States for the first time, the World Meeting of Families – Philadelphia 2015 (WMOF) had the opportunity to prepare the City of Philadelphia for the visit of Pope Francis and for visitors from around the world. In collaboration with WMOF and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Brian Communications coordinated its major marketing and public relations initiative, “I’ll Be There,” which included the first Public Service Announcement to ever feature a Pope, and the development of branded collateral for businesses across the region. The agency also led coordination of WMOF’s city-wide branding initiatives – the largest of its kind in 15 years – and the development of the Papal Visit Playbook, the revolutionary online resource guide for local residents, which was leveraged by key local media outlets. In addition to these efforts, Brian Communications coordinated corporate sponsorship and media relations surrounding the four-day Congress and two-day Papal Visit. Efforts resulted in a historic week, which delivered hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city and more than a billion media impressions worldwide.

RESULTS

More than 20,000 attendees, from over 100 countries, attended the World Meeting of Families Congress (A 300+ percent increase from Milan 2012)

Executed more than 40 press conferences in the 18 months leading up to the event in both Rome and Philadelphia

Coordinated more than 3,000 media inquiries/interviews/Q&As prior to the event

Hundreds of thousands attended both the Festival of Families (September 26) and Papal Mass (September 27)

Event coverage by nearly 5,000 members of the international press corps

Delivered more than a billion global media impressions during the weekend with live coverage of Papal events by cable, national and local affiliates including the Papal Mass on CNN International (Seen in more than 200 Countries)

84 front pages in the United States alone on Monday, September 28 including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and USA Today

14 of the top 15 contributors on Twitter were international and national media organizations, with these outlets delivering more than 938 million impressions through this single social channel